Italian · meal

Zucchini carbonara with bacon

Name: Zucchini carbonara with bacon
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 6 slices Bacon; 3 whole Eggs; ¾ cup Parmesan; 3 whole Zucchini; 2 cloves Garlic; Salt and pepper (to taste)

Zucchini ribbons in place of pasta, bacon browned in its own fat and an egg and Parmesan cream that sets off the heat. Twenty minutes and a lot of pepper, which here is half the dish.

Serves

2 people

Amount

2 servings

Time

20 min

Steps

Why this one and not another

Five ingredients counting the salt and the pepper, none of them odd. Twenty minutes and a single skillet, but five of those minutes are spent waiting with the salted zucchini in the colander: the salt and the paper towel are the whole recipe, and without them the egg ends up as a yellow puddle at the bottom.

Where it comes from

Roman carbonara is four things: guanciale, egg, pecorino and black pepper. The argument that never ends is cream, and the answer is that there is none: the cream comes from beating the egg with the cheese and letting it set on the heat a switched-off skillet still holds. Where the dish came from is argued over too, with three or four versions that do not add up, so none of them gets picked here. What this version changed gets said straight out: there is no spaghetti but zucchini ribbons, the guanciale —which is cured pork jowl and is not sold everywhere— is bacon, and the pecorino is Parmesan. The switched-off-heat rule, the only one that actually decides anything, stayed as it was.

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

Never the same board for raw meat and for what goes in the juicer. If you only have one, vegetables first and meat after. And don't wash the chicken: it splatters.

1Ingredients and how to prep them

Ingredient	Amount	How to prep it
Bacon	6 slices	In strips a centimeter wide. It is all the fat in the dish: do not add oil.
Eggs	3 whole	At room temperature. Cold ones set unevenly.
Parmesan	¾ cup	Grated very fine, almost powder, so it melts without lumps.
Zucchini	3 whole	In long ribbons with a vegetable peeler, discarding the seedy core.
Garlic	2 cloves	Smashed whole, pulled out before serving.
Salt and pepper	to taste	Freshly ground and coarse, plenty of it. It is half the recipe.

Bacon6 slices
In strips a centimeter wide. It is all the fat in the dish: do not add oil.
Eggs3 whole
At room temperature. Cold ones set unevenly.
Parmesan¾ cup
Grated very fine, almost powder, so it melts without lumps.
Zucchini3 whole
In long ribbons with a vegetable peeler, discarding the seedy core.
Garlic2 cloves
Smashed whole, pulled out before serving.
Salt and pepperto taste
Freshly ground and coarse, plenty of it. It is half the recipe.

2Steps

In this order. The box on each step is the specific pitfall: what goes wrong there and why.

1
Salt the zucchini and let it drain
5 min
The ribbons in a colander with a pinch of salt, tossed, five minutes. Then press them between paper towels until they come out floppy.
Heads up
This step decides the whole dish. Zucchini is water: throw it in as it is and it releases that water into the skillet, thins the egg out and instead of cream you get a little yellow broth at the bottom. Right: the ribbon bends without breaking and the paper comes out wet; wrong: it is still stiff and it crunches.
2
Brown the bacon starting in a cold skillet
6 min
The strips in the skillet with the heat off, with the smashed garlic. Turn it to medium and leave it until it is browned and has given up its fat. Pull the bacon and the garlic, keep the fat.
Heads up
Cold skillet to start, even if it sounds backward. In a hot skillet the meat of the bacon burns before the fat melts, and that fat is the oil for the whole recipe: you end up without it and with black strips instead. Right: it starts crackling little by little and the bottom fills with clear fat.
3
Beat the egg with the Parmesan off the heat
2 min
In a bowl, the eggs, all of the Parmesan and a lot of pepper, until it is a thick, even paste.
Heads up
It has to come out thick like custard, not runny. If the cheese is coarsely grated it will not come together and on the plate you get threads of melted cheese on one side and watery egg on the other.
4
Sauté the zucchini in the bacon fat
4 min
High heat, the ribbons for ninety seconds, moving them with tongs so they get coated without tearing.
Heads up
Ninety seconds and that is it. One more minute and the ribbons collapse into purée and let go of the little water they had left, exactly what you just pulled out of them. Right: they are still whole and glossy, with a browned edge here and there.
5
Turn it off, wait, and then the egg
3 min
Off the heat, count to thirty, and only then the egg mixture over the zucchini, stirring nonstop until it turns to cream. The bacon on top.
Heads up
This is the step that separates a carbonara from scrambled eggs. The skillet holds plenty of heat to set the egg in two seconds if you pour it in right away; that is why you turn it off, you wait and you stir nonstop. Right: a glossy cream that wraps every ribbon and runs slowly; wrong: loose yellow curds and clear liquid underneath.

3If something goes wrong

What happens	Why	What to do
It came out scrambled egg instead of cream	The skillet was still on the heat, or it was too hot.	Turn it off, wait half a minute and stir nonstop. Once it has set, it does not come back.
There is a clear liquid at the bottom of the plate	The zucchini did not give up its water before the skillet.	Salt, colander and paper towel. Five minutes of waiting save you the puddle.
The cheese made threads and lumps	It was coarsely grated or it went straight into the skillet.	Grate it almost to powder and beat it with the egg first, never on its own over the heat.

It came out scrambled egg instead of cream
Why: The skillet was still on the heat, or it was too hot.
What to do: Turn it off, wait half a minute and stir nonstop. Once it has set, it does not come back.
There is a clear liquid at the bottom of the plate
Why: The zucchini did not give up its water before the skillet.
What to do: Salt, colander and paper towel. Five minutes of waiting save you the puddle.
The cheese made threads and lumps
Why: It was coarsely grated or it went straight into the skillet.
What to do: Grate it almost to powder and beat it with the egg first, never on its own over the heat.

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Why this one and not another

Where it comes from

▲Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

1Ingredients and how to prep them

2Steps

Salt the zucchini and let it drain

Brown the bacon starting in a cold skillet

Beat the egg with the Parmesan off the heat

Sauté the zucchini in the bacon fat

Turn it off, wait, and then the egg

3If something goes wrong

This recipe is one of the meals in the plan

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen